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Parker council to adopt CivicPlus mass-notification, create official Facebook presence
Summary
City staff recommended adopting CivicPlus mass-notification, designating a communications coordinator, and launching an official city Facebook page; council directed staff to move forward and track staff time and costs.
City staff presented results of a six-month review of resident communications and recommended adopting CivicPlus as the city’s mass-notification platform, appointing a single staff communications coordinator and launching an official Facebook page with posting guidelines.
“Kent” said the committee’s goal was to “seek out the most economical, sustainable, and low impact methods to better engage with our residents,” and recommended CivicPlus for geofenced messaging, unlimited SMS alerts, and two-way polling features. CivicPlus representative Austin Surdy described geofencing and multichannel delivery that can push messages to specified subdivisions or the whole city and integrate with iPAWS for emergency alerts.
Council members asked for message mockups, clarity on migrating “Notify Me” contacts, and whether Facebook would serve as an archival receptacle. Staff said social-media archiving is a separate CivicPlus product and recommended policy guidance on retention and open-records implications. The committee estimated a recurring annual cost of about $5,000 and noted a quoted $9,000 annual saving relative to Everbridge in the packet materials.
After discussion about staffing, policy, and legal compliance with public-information rules, the council gave staff direction to proceed with the committee’s plan and return with implementation details and staff-time tracking.
